1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device that communicates using an IP address, an IP address determining method for use in the electronic device, and a recording medium having an IP address determining program stored therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
Transition of IP (Internet Protocol) address from 32-bit IPv4 address to 128-bit IPv6 address is underway. According to IPv6, as a unique link local address is assigned to each electronic device, users can communicate with other electronic devices right away by only connecting a cable without doing any configuration. Each link local address has a prefix and an interface identifier that is generated based on a MAC address (RFC2373).
<Patent Document 1> Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-258825
<Patent Document 2> Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-9823
<Patent Document 3> Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-213067
However, if an electronic device with a manually assigned IP address or an electronic device with a fake MAC address is in the same segment as a user's device, the link local address of the user's device might be the same as the link local address of such a device. If there is such duplication of address, the user's device cannot communicate with other electronic devices.